Annual Leave for part calendar months 20 October 2022 at 3:42PM in Employment, jobseeking & training 6 replies 333 views

cmthephoenix

If an NHS Trust policy is that they only give annual leave for each full calendar month worked is that legal? (ie. if you start or leave part way through the month you don't get any annual leave for that month)
Potentially that would mean if you started on the 2nd day of 1 month and left on the penultimate day of the following month and had 33 days of annual leave for working in the NHS for over 10 years you should theoretically be due over 5 days of annual leave but would get none under the Trust policy.

Savvy_Sue

No, not legal. Pretty sure the law will be easily found through a quick search.

You work 5 minutes, you accrue annual leave. Not enough to make a fuss about, but still ...

General_Grant

cmthephoenix said:

If an NHS Trust policy is that they only give annual leave for each full calendar month worked is that legal? (ie. if you start or leave part way through the month you don't get any annual leave for that month)
Potentially that would mean if you started on the 2nd day of 1 month and left on the penultimate day of the following month and had 33 days of annual leave for working in the NHS for over 10 years you should theoretically be due over 5 days of annual leave but would get none under the Trust policy.

Because the NHS gives more than the statutory amount, as long as the equivalent of the statutory leave entitlement is given then it is legal to apply the "full month" rule. 

For the extreme case of working all but two days of two months for someone having moved from one employer to another but retaining their 33 days annual leave entitlement, rather than receiving 2/12 of 33 days (basically pro rata) they should be entitled to 2/12 of 28 days.

Marcon

Savvy_Sue said:

No, not legal. Pretty sure the law will be easily found through a quick search.

You work 5 minutes, you accrue annual leave. Not enough to make a fuss about, but still ...

It's legal. The NHS gives bank holidays in addition to statutory minimum entitlement, so this 'trimming' approach wouldn't reduce holidays below the statutory minimum.

Andy_L

What does the whole policy say, are they actually stealing holiday off you if you leave?

eg once you get a whole years service in do they back date the days you didn't get for the 1st part-month?

If somebody leaves with under a years service are the lost days calculated and added on to final pay?

Undervalued

Savvy_Sue said:

No, not legal. Pretty sure the law will be easily found through a quick search.

You work 5 minutes, you accrue annual leave. Not enough to make a fuss about, but still ...

It is not as simple as that.

If an employee only gets the statutory minimum annual leave then you are correct.

If they get more leave than the statutory minimum the extra days can have pretty much any terms and conditions attached to them. Such as only accumulated for each full month worked. 

So, depending on the split, the policy the OP describes may be legal.

Savvy_Sue

OK, I stand corrected. But IF the wording of the policy just states "no annual leave accrues during part months" or similar, then I'd say it's very poorly worded. There should be some indication that the statutory minimum will be paid.